Amazon Prime Carnival Row (new Amazon series)

[Es Arcanum]

Just finished binge watching this series and I found it fairly entertaining. Although the last episode was a bit overwrought.

It's got all the hallmarks of a modern Western media series with every diversity box checked and some caricatures of bad racist people but importantly it manages to not let that get in the way of telling a decent storyline.

The world building is fleshed out okay though I would have preferred a wider world view. But the show is named after a section of one city so it's understandable that most of the action takes place there. Perhaps next season will do more in this regard.

Not sure how the villains are going to work next season because the ones who are left don't really seem all that threatening and one requires a lot of suspension of disbelief even in-universe. This city state has a weird hybrid system of government.

I think the fairy lands are supposed to be some Ireland/North America expy or something. The show definitely doesn't take place in our Earth even though at one point it mentions what sounds a lot like Egypt. The City of The Burge or whatever is like some fantastical city state of London which exists in a world of city states.

I'd say give the show a try and see if you like it.

 

[Culsu]

Only had the chance to watch the opening scene, and will probably hold back from watching more until it's available in German so I can watch it together with my wife. But, looking at that opening scene, it's no wonder the Pact won the war. The had the Headshot Battalion on their side!

 

[Es Arcanum]

The Pact did seem to totally outclass the Burg forces pretty much everytime we saw them.

 

[Culsu]

The Pact did seem to totally outclass the Burg forces pretty much everytime we saw them.

This they did. Airships, gatling guns, bombs, primitive rockets, bio-warfare (if you count the accelerated wolf curse drug). It's also obvious that they were able to far more effectively project power across the sea, and include the locals into their fight (with the talk of Pact fae guerilla in the flashback episode).

Here's a map of (the nothern hemisphere? of) the world:

I have to say I really liked the season. The plots were intermingled, you had some really nice character development, the world-building, as far as the run time allowed, was quite intruiging and well-executed, with all the different races and faiths, even if many were just mentioned or shown in passing.

That being said, I'm not sure whether I'm going to like season two, which looks to be a heavy-handed allegory to the Warsaw ghetto, probably mixed with a bad take on the issue of modern mass immigration.

Ironically, I'd like the incest siblings to succeed, at least for a while. Not because of anything political they do, but because their (her?) plot was so wonderfully executed.